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Ethnicity, Religion and the State in Ghana and Nigeria: Perceptions from the Street Department of International Development, University of Oxford Ethnicity, Religion and the State in Ghana and Nigeria: Perceptions from the Street Arnim Langer and Ukoha Ukiwo CRISE WORKING PAPER No. 34 October, 2007 Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, CRISE Queen Elizabeth House, University of Oxford, Mansfield Rd, OX1 3TB, UK Tel: +44 1865 281810; Fax: +44 1865 281801; http://www.crise.ox.ac.uk/ CRISE Working Paper No. 34 Ethnicity, Religion and the State in Ghana and Nigeria: Perceptions from the Street Abstract Objectively speaking, both Ghana and Nigeria are characterised by severe socio- economic inequalities among their regions, ethnic groups and religions. Yet, since ultimately collective action depends on how social groups perceive the world in which they live and act, unravelling such perceptions must be a critical element in any investigation of group behaviour, including violent group mobilization. One of the preferred methods of obtaining data on these issues is through a social survey. This paper presents and analyzes survey data on how people see their own identities and their perceptions of the extent of domination of state institutions by particular ethnic or religious groups in Ghana and Nigeria. The data are drawn from perceptions surveys conducted in both countries which consisted principally of a set of structured questionnaires in which respondents answered closed-ended questions. The surveys show quite marked differences in comparative perceptions of identities and of perceptions of the state in both countries. The authors Arnim Langer is Research Officer in Economics and Politics, West Africa, at the Centre for Research on Inequality, Human Security and Ethnicity, Department of International Development, University of Oxford. Email: [email protected] Ukoha Ukiwo is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Social Science (CASS), Port Harcourt, Nigeria, and a Visiting Scholar at the Institute of International Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA. He was a CRISE scholar at the Department of International Development, University of Oxford, from 2003 to 2006. Email: [email protected] 1 CRISE Working Paper No. 34 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ........................................................................................................... 3 2. ‘Objective’ socioeconomic and political inequalities in Ghana and Nigeria............. 4 3. Ethnic and religious composition of the survey samples........................................ 8 4. The salience of different identities ....................................................................... 10 5. The perceived impact of ethnicity and religion in the public sphere ..................... 12 6. Perceptions of political horizontal inequalities...................................................... 17 7. Perceptions of government favouritism and discrimination .................................. 19 8. Conclusions......................................................................................................... 21 List of Tables Table 1: Various socioeconomic indicators across Ghana’s regions, 1997-1999....... 5 Table 2: Various socioeconomic indicators across Nigeria’s zones in 1995/96.......... 5 Table 3: Ethnoregional composition of various Ghanaian governments, 1993-2005.. 6 Table 4: Zonal composition of various Nigerian cabinets, 1983-2004 ........................ 7 Table 5: Ethnic composition of the Ghanaian survey................................................. 8 Table 6: Ethnic composition of the Nigerian survey ................................................... 8 Table 7: Religious composition of the Ghanaian survey ............................................ 9 Table 8: Religious composition of the Nigerian survey .............................................. 9 Table 9: The proportion of Ghanaian respondents according to survey location who thought that ethnicity affected someone’s chances of getting ….............................. 13 Table 10: The proportion of Nigerian respondents according to survey location who thought that ethnicity affected someone’s chances of getting ….............................. 13 Table 11: The proportion of Ghanaian respondents according to educational background and survey location who thought that ethnicity affected someone’s chances of getting …............................................................................................... 15 Table 12: The proportion of Nigerian respondents according to educational background and survey location who thought that ethnicity affected someone’s chances of getting …............................................................................................... 15 Table 13: The proportion of Ghanaian respondents according to survey location who thought that religion affected someone’s chances of getting … ............................... 17 Table 14: The proportion of Nigerian respondents according to survey location who thought that religion affected someone’s chances of getting … ............................... 17 Table 15: The proportion of Ghanaian respondents according to survey location who considered a specific state institution to be dominated by a particular group........... 18 Table 16: The proportion of Nigerian respondents according to survey location who considered a specific state institution to be dominated by a particular group........... 18 Table 17: Perceptions of government favouritism and discrimination in Ghana according to survey location .................................................................................... 19 Table 18: Perceptions of government favouritism and discrimination in Nigeria according to survey location .................................................................................... 19 List of Figures Figure 1: Three most important forms of self-identification in Ghana ....................... 10 Figure 2: Three most important forms of self-identification in Nigeria ...................... 11 2 CRISE Working Paper No. 34 Ethnicity, Religion and the State in Ghana and Nigeria: Perceptions from the Street By Arnim Langer and Ukoha Ukiwo1,2 1. Introduction Objectively speaking, both Ghana and Nigeria are characterised by severe socio- economic inequalities among their regions, ethnic groups and religions. Yet, since ultimately collective action depends on how social groups perceive the world in which they live and act, unravelling such perceptions must be a critical element in any investigation of group behaviour, including violent group mobilization. One of the preferred methods of obtaining data on these issues is through a social survey. This paper presents and analyzes survey data on how people see their own identities and their perceptions of the extent of domination of state institutions by particular ethnic or religious groups. The data are drawn from perceptions surveys conducted in both countries which consisted principally of a set of structured questionnaires in which respondents answered closed-ended questions.3 It is important to note that the perceptions surveys conducted in Ghana and Nigeria were not nationally representative. The results are therefore only statistically representative for the selected survey locations, but we can draw wider inferences based on the assumption that the surveyed areas are qualitatively representative of a larger part of society. In the perceptions survey conducted in Ghana, 608 randomly selected individuals of eighteen years and above were interviewed in three urban settings in the southern part of the country, namely: Accra in the Greater Accra Region, Ho in the Volta Region and Kumasi in the Ashanti Region. Ghana’s 2000 Population and Housing Census provided us with precise and reliable data on the ethnic composition of these three cities. While Accra -Ghana’s capital- is ethnically diverse, Ho and Kumasi are both much more ethnically homogenous. By selecting these three survey areas, we aimed to explore whether ethnic heterogeneity of communities affected the way people perceived issues related to their ethnic and religious identity. To reflect differences in size of each city, the 608 interviews were distributed as follows: Accra 306, Ho 61 and Kumasi 241. In the Nigerian case, we selected Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital and most populous city and Kukawa, Borno State, situated on the Lake Chad basis in the north-eastern part of the country. Kukawa was the capital of the Kanem Bornu Empire and is a semi-urban area, attracting traders and artisans from different parts of the country as a result of its proximity to Lake Chad and the Nigeria, Niger and Cameroun borders. In Lagos, two survey sites were selected. These were Ajegunle, a lower class high population density area, and Lagos Island, the central business district with middle class residential neighbourhoods. In all, out of a sample population of 597, 397 questionnaires were administered in Lagos. While 199 questionnaires were administered in Ajegunle, 198 were administered in Lagos Island, 200 questionnaires in Kukawa with 50 questionnaires each administered in Cross Kauwa, Baga, Doron Baga and Kukawa. Unlike the Ghanaian survey, the rationale for selecting our Nigerian survey locations was based on maximising social, 1 We would like to thank Centro Militare di Studi Strategici (CeMISS), Italian Ministry of Defence, Rome, for their generous funding of the survey research in both Ghana and Nigeria. 2 A shorter version of this paper will appear in Stewart
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